Psychology Around the Net: May 23, 2020

This week’s Psychology Around the Net looks at the benefits of walking or biking to work post quarantine, ways leaders can prepare themselves and their workspaces for reopening, possible causes and prevention of nightmares, and more.

Stay well, friends!

Leaders, Here’s How to Prepare for the Mental Health Challenges of Reopening: Workers who have been doing their best in survival mode while “lost in the unfamiliar” (i.e. creating home offices and working from home, homeschooling their children, figuring out how to virtually maintain relationships, etc.) are about to experience the threat mode of being “lost in the familiar” as they deal with staggered start times, rearranged works spaces, social distancing during lunch, and more. Fortunately, there are a few things company leaders can do to minimize the negative mental health impact such as ironing out the logistics, learning how to answer unanswerable questions, and not freaking out over missteps.

Meditation Is Not a Solitary Practice: “I think that meditation done skillfully and with effort opens up the meditator to new experience and empathy. From that open place understanding of others becomes easier, even natural. Meditation should be an expansive experience that takes us away from the mindless, distracting chatter in our heads and prepares us to truly notice the world around us.”

How to Say No to Socializing: States are slowly reopening which means in the next day or week or month, you’re probably going to receive a social invitation. Drinks with friends, cookout with family — whatever it is, if it doesn’t feel like the right time just yet, if you don’t feel safe yet, here’s how you can decline gracefully.

Are you Feeling Emotionally Exhausted During the Pandemic? You May Be Experiencing Burnout: When you think of experiencing burnout, you might think about people feeling burnout with their jobs; however, we can experience burnout related to a number of things and COVID-19 is definitely one of them. Emotional exhaustion, high levels of irritability, a reduced sense of accomplishment? Oh yeah, fore sure. Here, Dr. Dimitrios Tsatiris breaks down some of the signs you’re experiencing burnout from the novel coronavirus pandemic and offers some strategies for dealing with the burnout.